In the early stages at Old Trafford on Sunday players resembled rabbits in headlights

In the early stages at Old Trafford on Sunday, Manchester United’s players resembled rabbits in headlights. They looked unprepared to cope with the pressure and aggression of a team renowned for playing in such a way.

It was head-scratching to work out how a team could produce a start to lethargic against a side who haven’t exactly hidden their style under a bushel since Ange Postecoglou’s arrival. Everybody knew this is how Tottenham would approach the game, apart from the players on the pitch.

Take the first goal. Marcus Rashford overruns the ball and gives up on it, the least culpable but still the start of a pattern. Manuel Ugarte is slow to appreciate the danger a marauding Micky van de Ven is posing and on the other side Diogo Dalot decides to stick with his view of the back of Brennan Johnson, rather than making the effort to get goal side.

It set a tone that would continue. United had already been caught in possession twice and in the first quarter, Dalot, Matthijs de Ligt and Lisandro Martinez would all be pressured into mistakes. On at least three occasions United players passed the ball straight out of play and stood in bemusement.

It was Tottenham midfielder Dejan Kulusevski who summed it up best, the scorer of the second goal and a key cog in a first half when Spurs just ran rings around their hosts.

“Our pressure first half was unbelievable. They couldn’t get out the ball. We won it every time,” he said. “We won 3-0 but if we were clinical we would win by more.”

It should grate for United’s staff and players that an opposition player is talking about winning at Old Trafford in that way. It makes it sound so easy, but then it was easy.

The question being asked at United should be why this team started so slowly. United’s players looked surprised at Tottenham’s early intensity when it was actually predictable. Had they been warned about it pre-match? Was there a plan in place to deal with it?

It’s hard to believe that this wasn’t something that was worked on in the week? United only had a couple of days to prepare for the fixture but they still had 24 hours longer than Spurs, so that is no excuse. Tottenham play a unique style under Postecoglou and it’s also a style that never changes. Those is red should have known what was coming their way, they should have been prepared for it and had an idea on how to counter it.

Instead, they froze. They were either unprepared or they weren’t ready physically. Either is damning and it has to focus questions on what is happening on the training ground and in the meeting rooms at Carrington.

United had actually looked more cohesive in the early weeks of this season. A change in the coaching set-up at Carrington and the arrival of Rene Hake and Ruud van Nistelrooy initially led to an improvement in their own pressing. On Sunday, it was a failure to deal with the opposition’s press, which cost them.

Starting halves slowly is nothing new under Ten Hag but when you do so against a team like Tottenham you offer them an invitation to swarm all over you. That makes it even more difficult to establish a foothold in the game. United never had one and when Bruno Fernandes was sent off they were never going to get one.

Ten Hag is now under severe pressure ahead of a defining week, with away games against Porto and Aston Villa. He was at Carrington for 7.30am on Monday and the players arrived soon after. As they pick the bones out of another dreadful day, one of the key questions that need answering was why they were taken by surprise by one of the most predictable tactics in the game.